始めまして (Nice Ta Meetcha)(Update!)

From now through September 13th, visitors to Keikyu Aburatsubo Marine Park in Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, can actually shake hands paws with Asian small-clawed otters. (English version of the site is here.) Folks dip their finger in Wakasagi Smelt extract, then poke it thru the hole.

Quoting Steve L. of Petslady.com, “The program is open daily from 11:50am on weekdays and from 12:40pm on weekends and holidays. Admission is 500 yen (about $5) and reservations can be made by phoning the Park directly. Due to the popularity of the program, you really ‘otter’ call before visiting.(+81-46-880-0152.)”

I can top this – there’s a zoo in France called Beauval. They have an enclosure full of otters there. When I was younger, the fibreglass around their enclosure had a small gap at the bottom, and the otters would all poke their paws underneath, allowing everyone to stroke them :D

Dude, have you seen how wild animals live? Being wild sucks major balls. Just look at all the feral cats and dogs out there and you get a brief taste of it.

Many of these animals are part of breeding programs because their species are threatened or, in some cases, endangered, and cannot survive in the wild (LIKE PANDAS, which are worthless to their habitat anyway). It’s not an ideal way to do things but it’s the least we can do to right some of the insane wrongs we have done to the world.

As far as caging humans and subjecting them to unsatisfactory living conditions, we do that to ourselves already. See: jobs, hospitals, assisted living centers, nursing homes, etc.